Rachael Leigh Cook Photo Shoot - JustJared.com Exclusive!

The 32-year-old actress stars as FBI agent Kate Moretti on the brand new series Perception, which premiered to strong ratings last week. The show follows Dr. Daniel Pierce (Eric McCormack), an eccentric neuroscientist who uses his unique outlook to help the federal government solve complex criminal cases.

RACHAEL LEIGH COOK – EXCLUSIVE JUSTJARED.COM INTERVIEW

Just Jared: Tell us about your show and character.

Rachael Leigh Cook: Eric McCormack is a really brilliant professor of neuroscience at a college in Chicago. He’s a published author, considered to be an expert in his field, but his Achilles heel, no that’s a bad way of putting it, his illness holds him back from being the best that he can be, the best professor he can be, the best man he can be. He is a highly functional schizophrenic. He’s steady exhibiting symptoms and he’s off his medication, so my character is a former student of his who has recruited him to help solve crimes through the FBI where she works as an agent. Because of his intimate knowledge of the brain and human behavior, he can add insight that you know maybe the bureau can’t find.

JJ: Are you both agents?

RLC: No. He’s hired on as a consultant.

JJ: How did you get attached to the project?

RLC: It’s a pretty boring story. I just auditioned for it and then hoped I would get it. It took a while though because they hadn’t found the main guy yet. Then they casted Eric and they said I was still in the mix. Then I flew back from where I was shooting in Toronto and came back to LA for the screen test with Eric for the network and the studio and luckily for me I didn’t fall on my face and maybe no one else showed up so I got the part.

JJ: Have you done TV stuff before?

RLC: I’ve done TV stuff before. I did 6 episodes of the show Psych, which was a good time for USA and that was a great experience. I did a half hour pilot last year that never got picked up. This is my first picked up full time show. It’s exciting and it’s scary.

JJ: Do you have a favorite scene so far?

RLC: I like the interrogation scenes. They’re charged. You get to sort of really break people down. I got to shoot a guy. That was pretty sweet. The most difficult thing on the show is handcuffing these fake perpetrators. I don’t know what it is, but they always throw their wrists together and they’re like, “No, you’ll never take me alive!” And I’m like, “Dude I can’t get your wrists apart to get these handcuffs on you.”

JJ: Do you have a favorite off screen moment?

RLC: Eric always makes me laugh. It was pretty funny when Tom Sizemore came in to do his guest spot. He made me laugh so much because he comes on set like a cowboy. He’s big, kind of quiet, everyone’s sort of under the spell of how natural intimidated he is and then cut’s called on the first shot and he says, “Can I put my UGGs back on?”

JJ: Have you seen any of your She’s All That co-stars?

RLC: I don’t mind talking about that movie, it has such a special place in my heart and always will. I would love to see everyone again. I ran into Gabrielle Union last month in New York and she looks exactly the same, which is almost weird. I’ve run into Paul [Walker]. Freddie [Prinze, Jr.]’s the one I have not seen that guy’s face ever since we wrapped. I ran into a friend of mine, Breckin Meyer and he said that he just did Clueless reunion photo shoot. I was like, we should do that. Not that we’re as iconic as Clueless, but we should totally do that.

JJ: You’ve been so many characters, who do you think you’re most similar to?

RLC: I’m somewhere between this character and my She’s All That character.

JJ: What are your favorite TV Shows?

RLC: I’m obsessed with Archer and Ultimate Fighter Brazil and Girls.

JJ: Favorite music?

RLC: I’m really into the new Cory Chisel record, Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons. It’s really good. They’re like my all time favorite. It doesn’t hurt that they’re from Minnesota either.

JJ: Any last words why people should watch your show?

RLC: It’s an excellent ‘who done it?’ show. It has great character development, the occasional well-placed laugh, and you might just actually learn something along the way.

JJ: You’ve had so many hairstyles. Are there any you look back and regret?

RLC: The bleached one. I wanted to have white hair like Storm in X-Men and that’s what I told my apparently amateur hairdresser and then I looked down and saw my hair in the sink and I looked like Susan Powter. It was a bad time.

JJ: Any fairytale you’d love to be part of?

RLC: Everyone’s been Snow White. Tinkerbell, no that’s all Brittany Murphy. What’s good one? I can’t even think of one. Ariel? No.

Make sure to tune into tonight’s all new episode of Perception at 10/9c on TNT!